[MotifGuy]

Hello everyone,

I'm dropping by to talk about an idea for a modernized version of the IRIX user interface for other (newer) platforms. I really enjoy the look and feel of IRIX. The rounded Motif widgets are a lot easier on the eyes than other implementations like the widgets in CDE. I've decided to work on some themes for XFCE on Linux/BSD that copy this interface and even improve upon it.

There are two reasons why I'm working on this. Firstly I'm doing it because there aren't really and complete and good looking themes of this kind out there for use with Linux or BSD. The are some X cursor themes, some xfwm4 themes, etc but nothing that's an all-in-one package that's easy to use. The second reason, and it's sad to say, but SGI hardware is slowly dying, and so is the software development scene. My O2's motherboard broke a couple years ago and I haven't repaired it or bought a new one because I can't justify the expense for what I see as a dead platform. This makes me sad, so sad that I'd like to build a replacement that's just as good so I never have to deal with this again. If I make an open source desktop that runs on common Unix-like systems, it can be forked and updated forever.

With XFCE I have the functionality of a modern desktop environment and I can make it look like whatever I want. XFCE has been ported to OpenBSD, NetBSD, and Devuan, my three main operating systems. It runs well on mediocre hardware like my 1GHz Intel laptop, and can run all of the apps and tools in less than 500MB RAM.

Here are screenshots of what I have so far. It's the "Vancouver" theme based on screenshots of IRIX. Today or tomorrow I'm going to work on making a Toolchest replacement out of the xfce4-panel application. I'm going to attempt to use custom images for buttons and have custom menu files to match.

Desktop:
<URL url="https://ibb.co/csJ1ZT">https://ibb.co/csJ1ZT
Login:
<URL url="https://ibb.co/cKhs8o">https://ibb.co/cKhs8o

Let me know if there's any interest in something like this.

[LarBob]

This is very cool! Sort of like MaXX but built on top of a commonplace DE. I am looking forward to its release.

[Raion]

Not bad. Definitely cool to me. I also have someone working on a 4dwm-type thing... I'll hoard the details for now.

[commodorejohn]

I remember someone talking about this on Nekochan a few years back...definitely like the idea.

[MotifGuy]

Hey guys, thanks for the positive feedback. I have some small updates. I spent some time configuring .Xdefaults using some of the options from GitHub and from the MaXX source that's still up so I could get xosview to look as close as possible to gr_osview from IRIX without using the MaXX version of the application. I also made another xfwm4 theme that looks like the default of IRIX, which is also based on screenshots of both IRIX and MaXX. I worked on smoothing out the edges a little to make it more presentable and fixed some cosmetic issues with pressed buttons (not shown). I've been messing with my .gtkrc-2.0 to try to fix the desktop icons. I wanted white square backgrounds but I don't think I can do that, so I made them transparent with a small text shadow. Icon spacing is okay but they seem smashed together still, so I'll play with those values to see if I can sort it out. I also copied most of the hinv script from MaXX and modified it so that it'll still show basic information as normal but without root access. The verbose output option still needs root to access BIOS info and the like, but I don't see this as a pressing issue. Also allowing the user to execute hinv from anywhere with the shell will be as easy as adding it to the path, so please ignore the "./" for now.

New theme:
<URL url="https://ibb.co/k5Qcto">https://ibb.co/k5Qcto

[LarBob]

<QUOTE author="MotifGuy" post_id="1740" time="1532564702" user_id="279">

Hey guys, thanks for the positive feedback. I have some small updates. I spent some time configuring .Xdefaults using some of the options from GitHub and from the MaXX source that's still up so I could get xosview to look as close as possible to gr_osview from IRIX without using the MaXX version of the application. I also made another xfwm4 theme that looks like the default of IRIX, which is also based on screenshots of both IRIX and MaXX. I worked on smoothing out the edges a little to make it more presentable and fixed some cosmetic issues with pressed buttons (not shown). I've been messing with my .gtkrc-2.0 to try to fix the desktop icons. I wanted white square backgrounds but I don't think I can do that, so I made them transparent with a small text shadow. Icon spacing is okay but they seem smashed together still, so I'll play with those values to see if I can sort it out. I also copied most of the hinv script from MaXX and modified it so that it'll still show basic information as normal but without root access. The verbose output option still needs root to access BIOS info and the like, but I don't see this as a pressing issue. Also allowing the user to execute hinv from anywhere with the shell will be as easy as adding it to the path, so please ignore the "./" for now.

New theme:
<URL url="https://ibb.co/k5Qcto">https://ibb.co/k5Qcto

Hehe, the hinv implementation is a nice touch. Looking great!

[matyas]

Be interested in checking this out. I installed Maxx on my Linux box, but I find it kind of annoying to configure and went back to plain old XFCE.

[MotifGuy]

Alright, I'm back. Finally got the theme files and other stuff put together into one easy to use archive. The link will take you to a download for a .tar file. Just drag to the desktop and extract it. In that folder there is a "README" file. Read that first. There are more "README" files in each of the sub directories that will tell you what to do with the files and folders inside of them. This was tested on Devuan ASCII, but it should work on Debian or really anything that uses XFCE and the SLiM login manager. It also works on my own OpenBSD machine, but that one is for development and things constantly change. I also forgot to mention that with the dot files like the .gtkrc-2.0 and .Xdefaults, you can just copy and paste their contents into your existing dot files so as to not overwrite them if they already exist.

<URL url="http://www.filedropper.com/xfce-sgi">http://www.filedropper.com/xfce-sgi

Enjoy! I'll check back at least once a week, so just ask if you guys need me to reupload the archive or tell me if you have issues or questions.

[MotifGuy]

I'm back with a more simple and streamlined version of this theme. Currently I only have one window manager theme included in this archive. I forget what the theme on real IRIX was called, something like white or greyscale. I called this one paperwhite. Icons are pretty much the same, got a new and improved red X cursor theme. Two cool scripts (hinv and geo) are now included under the bin directory. There's some nice tiling wallpapers included now, a simple SLiM login theme that matches with the Motif look, same GTK+ theme. Touched up some of the dotfiles, added a list of recommended apps for a nicer user experience, added fonts and ROXTerm settings. I think things are looking pretty nice.

Newest theme as of 12 Aug, 2018:
<URL url="https://uploadfiles.io/vj1oh">https://uploadfiles.io/vj1oh

<IMG src="https://s33.postimg.cc/8ftjwpn6n/Screenshot_2018-08-12_07-14-35.png">[img]<URL url="https://s33.postimg.cc/8ftjwpn6n/Screenshot_2018-08-12_07-14-35.png"><LINK_TEXT text="https://s33.postimg.cc/8ftjwpn6n/Screen ... -14-35.png">https://s33.postimg.cc/8ftjwpn6n/Screenshot_2018-08-12_07-14-35.png</LINK_TEXT>[/img]</IMG>

[MotifGuy]

I also wanted to mention that I can take requests for other window manager themes. If you have a specific theme you want for xfwm4, just upload a png screenshot from your IRIX machines. You just need to have one active and one inactive window, both with all three control buttons and all four corners of each window in plain view. Then I can use GIMP to crop them into smaller xpm files and toss in a themerc.